46-509: Florian Zeller ( French: [zɛlɛʁ] ; born 28 June 1979) is a French novelist, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film director. He has written over a dozen plays, that have been staged worldwide and have made him one of the most celebrated contemporary playwrights. Zeller wrote and directed his first film, 2020's The Father , based on his play of the same name , starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman . The film received more than 200 nominations and awards, all over
92-455: A BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film. It is, according to The Times , "one of the greatest cinematic experiences of the decade". In 2021, it was included on Forbes ' s list of "The Top 150 Greatest Films Of The 21st Century." In 2022, Time Out ranked it number 93 on its list of the "100 Best Films of the 21st Century So Far", writing that the film "communicates perfectly what dementia must feel like:
138-472: A completely different bedroom, which is in a nursing home. His nurse arrives, having earlier appeared as both Anne and Laura, but now identifying herself as Catherine. She informs him that Anne lives in Paris and visits on occasional weekends. Another nurse named Bill also visits, identical to one of the men who earlier appeared to be Anne's husband. Anthony breaks down in tears over his inability to understand what
184-451: A devastatingly empathetic portrayal of dementia." At Metacritic , it has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". At the 78th Golden Globe Awards , the film received four nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama . It also received six nominations at the 74th British Academy Film Awards , including Best Film , and six Oscars nominations. Zeller and Christopher Hampton won
230-427: A different woman. When a new caregiver, Laura, arrives for an interview, Anthony tells Laura he was a professional dancer and insists he does not need any assistance. Anthony later says Laura reminds him of his other daughter Lucy, whom he has not seen for a long time. Anthony is taken to a doctor and rejects the idea that he has memory problems. Later, he tells Laura how proud he is of Lucy, a painter. She tells him she
276-441: A holiday that had to be cancelled because of Anthony's needs, and about Anne's sacrifices for her father. Paul asks Anthony how long he plans to stay in their flat and annoy everyone; this sequence of events is repeated later, and on the second occasion Paul slaps him. Anthony wakes up and walks out of the flat, finding himself in a hospital hallway. He remembers Lucy lying in a hospital bed with blood on her face. He then wakes up in
322-590: A world stripped of its signposts, a feeling of being uncoupled, a sense of the familiar slowly becoming frighteningly 'other'." In 2023, it ranked number 2 on Collider ' s list of "The 20 Best Drama Movies of the 2020s So Far." It also ranked number 27 on its list of the "30 Best Drama Movies of All Time," In March and April 2021, it was announced that Zeller co-wrote with Christopher Hampton, and would direct, their adaptation of The Son (which serves as Zeller's and Hampton's follow-up to The Father ), with Hugh Jackman , Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby to star in
368-539: A writing team, with Jim Taylor for Sideways and Jim Rash and Nat Faxon for The Descendants . Michael Wilson was blacklisted at the time of his second Oscar, so the award was given to a front (novelist Pierre Boulle ). However, the Academy officially recognized him as the winner several years later. Billy Wilder , Charles Brackett , Paddy Chayefsky , Francis Ford Coppola , Horton Foote , William Goldman , Robert Benton , Bo Goldman , Waldo Salt , and
414-411: Is E. M. Forster , whose novels A Room with a View and Howards End resulted in wins for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala . Larry McMurtry is the only person who has won for adapting someone else's work ( Brokeback Mountain ), and whose own work has been adapted by someone else, resulting in a win ( Terms of Endearment ) . William Monahan ( The Departed ) and Sian Heder ( CODA ) are
460-685: Is "one of the greatest plays of the century". His comedy, The Truth , opened in the West End in June 2017 and received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Comedy . His play, The Height of the Storm , starring Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins , opened in London's West End in September 2018 and on New York's Broadway in September 2019. It has been named "best play of 2018", and "one of the best plays of
506-487: Is "stupendously effective and profoundly upsetting" and described it as a "majestic depiction of things falling away". The Guardian 's Anne Billson ranked Hopkins's performance in the film as the best of his career. It is, according to The Times , "one of the greatest cinematic experiences of the decade". In 2021, it was included on Forbes ' s list of "The Top 150 Greatest Films Of The 21st Century." In 2022, Time Out ranked it number 93 on its list of
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#1732780495811552-455: Is a 2020 psychological drama film, directed by Florian Zeller in his directorial debut. He co-wrote the screenplay with fellow playwright Christopher Hampton on the basis of Zeller's 2012 play Le Père . A French–British co-production, the film stars Anthony Hopkins as an octogenarian Welsh man living with dementia . Olivia Colman , Mark Gatiss , Imogen Poots , Rufus Sewell , and Olivia Williams also star. The Father premiered at
598-427: Is also laced with deep empathy for its protagonist, a trait punctuated by a towering, heartbreaking performance from Hopkins." The Son (2022) based on Zeller's 2018 play, is in-part framed as a prequel to The Father , with Hopkins briefly appearing as "Anthony" in a cameo and Zeller returning as writer and director. Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
644-458: Is happening to him, as well as Anne's disappearance. He says he wants his mother and that he is "losing his leaves, the branches, the wind and the rain". Catherine comforts him and tells him she will take him out to the park later. It was announced in May 2019 that Florian Zeller was to direct a screenplay with Christopher Hampton based on his play. Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman were cast in
690-430: Is moving to Paris to be with a man, which confuses Anthony since he does not recall any men in her life since the end of her marriage to James. Anne says that if he keeps refusing to have a caregiver, she will have to move him into a nursing home. The next day, Anthony encounters an unknown man, Paul, in his flat. Paul says he is Anne's husband and that Anthony is living in their flat. Anne returns but appears to Anthony as
736-428: Is sorry about Lucy's accident, but Anthony is confused as he has no recollection of the accident. Over the course of the film, it becomes clear that Anthony has really been living with Anne for years, but believes he still lives in his own flat. After Anne comes home, she and her husband – who is sometimes called Paul and sometimes James, and appears as two different men – have an argument over
782-487: Is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, musicals, short stories, TV series, and other films and film characters. All sequels are also considered adaptations by this standard, being based on the story and characters of the original film. Prior to its current name,
828-565: Is the first person of Māori descent to receive the award. Emma Thompson ( Sense and Sensibility ) is the only winner who has also won for acting. Winners Billy Bob Thornton ( Sling Blade ) and John Huston ( The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ) have been nominated for acting but not won. Charles Schnee ( The Bad and the Beautiful ) , Billy Bob Thornton ( Sling Blade ), and Bill Condon ( Gods and Monsters ) are
874-614: The 93rd Academy Awards , The Father received six nominations, including Best Picture ; Hopkins won Best Actor and Zeller and Hampton won Best Adapted Screenplay . Since then, it has been cited as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century. Anne visits her father Anthony in his flat after he has driven away the latest of several caregivers. He has dementia and constantly forgets important life events and where things are around his flat, including his watch. He tells Anne he believes his caregiver stole his watch and that he will never move out of his flat. She tells Anthony she
920-450: The Coen brothers have won Oscars for both original and adapted screenplays. Frances Marion ( The Big House ) was the first woman to win in any screenplay category, although she won for her original script for Best Writing, which then included both original and adapted screenplays before a separate award for Best Original Screenplay was introduced. Sarah Y. Mason ( Little Women ) was
966-633: The Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2020. After its wide release was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic , it was released in France on 26 May 2021 and in the UK on 11 June 2021. The film grossed $ 24 million worldwide on a $ 6 million budget and was acclaimed by critics, who lauded the performances of Hopkins and Colman, as well as the production values and the portrayal of dementia. At
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#17327804958111012-459: The Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2020. The film received acclaim from critics, who lauded Hopkins and Colman's performances and praised its depiction of dementia . On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Led by stellar performances and artfully helmed by writer-director Florian Zeller, The Father presents
1058-518: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 98% of 296 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Led by stellar performances and artfully helmed by writer-director Florian Zeller, The Father presents a devastatingly empathetic portrayal of dementia." Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 88 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". According to PostTrak , 84% of audience members gave
1104-448: The "100 Best Films of the 21st Century So Far", writing that the film "communicates perfectly what dementia must feel like: a world stripped of its signposts, a feeling of being uncoupled, a sense of the familiar slowly becoming frighteningly 'other'." In 2023, it ranked number 2 on Collider ' s list of "The 20 Best Drama Movies of the 2020s So Far," saying that Zeller "proved that the best way to show how debilitating memory loss is,
1150-529: The 21st century" by The Guardian . His play, The Mother , starring Isabelle Huppert , opened in New York in February 2019. The Son opened in London in February 2019 and transferred to the West End in September 2019 with rave reviews. His plays have been staged in more than 45 countries. Zeller wrote and directed his first film, 2020's The Father , based on his play. It had its world premiere at
1196-805: The award was known as the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium. The Best Adapted Screenplay category has been a part of the Academy Awards since their inception. The first person to win twice in this category was Joseph L. Mankiewicz , who won the award in two consecutive years, 1949 and 1950. Others to win twice in this category include George Seaton , Robert Bolt (who also won in consecutive years), Francis Ford Coppola , Mario Puzo , Alvin Sargent , Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , Michael Wilson , Alexander Payne and Christopher Hampton . Payne won both awards as part of
1242-502: The film a positive score, with 54% saying they would definitely recommend it. Anthony Hopkins 's performance received widespread critical acclaim, with some calling it the finest of his career. He won his second Academy Award for Best Actor at age 83, making him the oldest Best Actor winner . Writing for Variety , Owen Gleiberman said " The Father does something that few movies about mental deterioration in old age have brought off in quite this way, or this fully. It places us in
1288-523: The film's opening weekend in the United States, the film made $ 433,611 from 865 cinemas, finishing eighth at the box office. The weekend following its six Oscar nominations, the film made $ 355,000 from 937 cinemas. Following its two Oscar wins, the film made $ 147,000 from 713 cinemas, for a running total of $ 1.9 million. In Spain, the film made $ 171,901 in its opening weekend from 156 cinemas, then $ 160,378 in its second and $ 54,901 in its third. On
1334-676: The film, respectively. It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 2020, and at the AFI Fest in October 2020. In the United States, the film began a limited release in New York City and Los Angeles on 26 February 2021, before being available on premium video on demand starting 26 March, after originally being scheduled to be released on 18 December 2020. The film
1380-515: The film. Olivia Williams , Rufus Sewell , Imogen Poots and Mark Gatiss joined later that month, with filming beginning on 13 May. Filming locations included West London Film Studios , and Hayes, Hillingdon . Production companies included Les Films du Cru, Film4 , Orange Studio , StudioCanal , and Ciné+ . The Father had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2020. Prior to this, Sony Pictures Classics and Lionsgate acquired UK and U.S. distribution rights to
1426-630: The film. The film premiered in September 2022 at Venice Film Festival , where it earned a rare 10-minute standing ovation after the screening. Zeller lives in Paris. In 2010, he married ex-model, actress and sculptor Marine Delterme , who played one of the main roles in the Parisian production of his play Le Manège . Their son, Roman, was born in December 2008. His stepson, Gabriel, was born in 1998 to his wife and her previous partner Jean-Philippe Écoffey . The Father (2020 film) The Father
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1472-454: The first African-American writing duo to win; Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott ( BlacKkKlansman ) are the second, although their co-writers, David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel, are both white. James Ivory ( Call Me by Your Name ) is the oldest person to receive the award at age 89. Charlie Wachtel ( BlacKkKlansman ) is the youngest at age 32. Taika Waititi ( Jojo Rabbit )
1518-592: The first siblings to win in this category. James Goldman ( The Lion in Winter ) and William Goldman ( All the President's Men ) are the first siblings to win for separate films. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen ( No Country for Old Men ) are the third winning siblings. Mario Puzo is the one of two writers whose work has been adapted and resulted in two wins. Puzo's novel The Godfather resulted in wins in 1972 and 1974 for himself and Francis Ford Coppola . The other
1564-622: The first woman to win for adaptation from previously established material; she shared the award with her husband, Victor Heerman . They are also the first of two married couples to win in this category; Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh ( The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ) are the others. Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney ( The Story of Louis Pasteur ) were the first to win for adapting their own work. Philip G. Epstein and Julius J. Epstein ( Casablanca ) are
1610-468: The full gamut of emotions from fury to outrage to longing for his mother like a little child and never once does it feel like a constructed character bit, despite our association with him as an actor with a storied career." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The best film about the wages of aging since Amour eight years ago, The Father takes a bracingly insightful, subtle and nuanced look at encroaching dementia and
1656-555: The middle child of three. He was raised by his grandmother and mother, as his father worked and lived in Germany. A coma caused by a serious asthma attack at the age of 15 changed the course of his life, as he said later: "I think it’s at that moment that worry and writing entered my life". He began studies at the Sciences Po , but dropped out in order to focus on his writing. Zeller wrote his first novel, Artificial Snow , when he
1702-419: The mind of its main character and showing the ways he's frequently disorientated, confused, and untrusting of people he doesn't always recognize." In 2024, Looper ranked it number 43 on its list of the "51 Best PG-13 Movies of All Time," writing "Countless mainstream horror movies could take a cue from The Father in terms of how to chill audiences to the bone ... Consistently eerie and uncertain, The Father
1748-595: The mind of someone losing his mind—and it does so by revealing that mind to be a place of seemingly rational and coherent experience." For The Guardian , Benjamin Lee wrote of Hopkins's performance: "It's astounding, heartbreaking work, watching him try to rationally explain to himself and those around him what he's experiencing. In some of the film's most quietly upsetting moments, his world has shifted yet again but he remains silent, knowing that any attempt to question what he's woken up to will only fall on deaf ears. Hopkins runs
1794-508: The only people who have won this award by using another full-length feature film as the credited source of the adaptation. Geoffrey S. Fletcher ( Precious ), John Ridley ( 12 Years a Slave ) and Cord Jefferson ( American Fiction ) are the only African-Americans to win solo in this category; Fletcher is also the first African-American to win in any writing category. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney ( Moonlight ) are
1840-921: The only winners whose respective films were not nominated for Best Picture . Noted novelists and playwrights nominated in this category include: George Bernard Shaw (who shared an award for an adaptation of his play Pygmalion ), Graham Greene , Tennessee Williams , Vladimir Nabokov , James Hilton , Dashiell Hammett , Raymond Chandler , Lillian Hellman , Irwin Shaw , James Agee , Norman Corwin , S. J. Perelman , Terence Rattigan , John Osborne , Robert Bolt , Harold Pinter , David Mamet , Larry McMurtry , Arthur Miller , John Irving , David Hare , Tony Kushner , August Wilson , Florian Zeller and Kazuo Ishiguro . Ted Elliott , Roger S. H. Schulman , Joe Stillman & Terry Rossio , writers of Shrek and Michael Arndt , John Lasseter , Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich , writers of Toy Story 3 , are as of 2020,
1886-430: The toll it takes on those in close proximity to the afflicted. Fronted by a stupendous performance from Anthony Hopkins as a proud Englishman in denial of his condition, this penetrating work marks an outstanding directorial debut by the play's French author Florian Zeller." Writing for Indiewire , David Ehrlich said: "Zeller adapts his award-winning play of the same name with steely vision and remarkable confidence, as
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1932-453: The world, including two Oscars at the 93rd Academy Awards . Since then, it has been cited as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century. In 2023, Zeller received France's Legion of Honor. Illustrious recipients of France's highest decoration includes Robert Redford , Miles Davis , David Lynch , Charlie Chaplin or Josephine Baker . Florian Zeller was born in Paris in 1979,
1978-443: The writer-director makes use of the camera like he's been standing behind one for his entire life. ... In Zeller's hands, what appears to be a conventional-seeming portrait of an unmoored old man as he rages against his daughter and caretaker slowly reveals itself to be the brilliant study of a mind at sea, and of the indescribable pain of watching someone drown." Writing for The New York Times , Jeannette Catsoulis said The Father
2024-609: Was 22. His third novel, The Fascination of Evil , made him a household name in France. It was selected for the Prix Goncourt . His play, The Father , played in London's West End to critical acclaim and top listings in the Best Plays of the Year. It was considered as "the most acclaimed new play of the last decade". and won several awards and nominations in Paris, London and New York. According to The Times , The Father
2070-552: Was released in India on 23 April 2021 and in the United Kingdom on 11 June 2021, delayed from earlier release dates of 8 January and 12 March in response to lockdowns as result of a second-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic . The film was released in mainland China on 18 June 2021. The Father grossed $ 2.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $ 32.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $ 34.4 million. In
2116-438: Was to show it through the eyes of the victim itself," using "creative techniques to show the shifts in reality." It also ranked number 27 on its list of the "30 Best Drama Movies of All Time," saying "While it's not the first movie to explore the difficulties of living with dementia, few others have done so quite as powerfully as The Father . It very quickly establishes itself as an intensely psychological drama, putting viewers in
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